This invention relates in general to stereoscopic apparatus and systems such as taught in class 40 Subclass 158, and in particular to stereoscopic apparatus and processes for three dimensional imaging such as described in Class 350, Subclasses 130, 133, and 396; Class 352 Subclasses 57 et seq.; Class 353 Subclass 7; Class 354 Subclasses 112 et seq; and Class 358 Subclasses 88 et seq.
Stereoscopic apparatus and processes have been known since the middle of the nineteenth century when Sir Charles Wheatstone introduced his stereoscopic viewer in 1838. Evidence that these devices have been taken out of the class of entertaining parlor devices and are employed for more important applications is shown by the following references:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ 666,424 F. E. Ives 725,567 F. E. Ives 1260682 C. W. Kanolt 2139855 St. Genies De Lassus 2571612 R. H. Rines 2729138 R. V. Bernier 3503315 R. L. DeMontebello 3990087 A. M. Marks et al 4406532 E. M. Howlett 4523226 L. Lipton et al ______________________________________
Only U.S. Pat. No. 2,571,612 to Rines, U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,188 to Bernier, U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,532 to Howlett and U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,226 to Lipton el al have any relevance to the present invention. Bernier teaches a split over/under format on projection film. Rines teaches the use of polarization to assist the eyes to separately view the stereo images in sequence. Howlett teaches pre-chroma differences relating to the color aberration of simple convex lenses. Lipton teaches a format on the Cathode Ray Tube employing central blanking and anamorphical compession techniques. In addition to the foregoing, the following publications provide excellent background material for this invention:
Three-Dimensional Imaging Techniques by Takanori Okoshi, Academic Press, 1985.
Foundations of the Stereo-Scopic Cinema--A Study in Depth by Lenny Lipton, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc., 1982.
It is an object of this invention to provide simple, economical and safe processes and apparatus for the production and viewing of stereo pairs by any known visual process including, but not limited to printing, motion pictures, television, video tape, video disc, painting, drawing, still photography and computer graphics.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system for three dimensional viewing of pairs of two-dimensional still or moving photographs, printed images and television signals utilizing present day technology.
It is also an object of this invention to allow for the viewer to be located anywhere in the viewing area with freedom of head movement and position and to provide means for adjusting the optical elements accurately without causing muscle movement by the viewer's eyes thereby overcoming false sensory perception errors caused by the visual muscle mechanism of the brain.
It is a further object of this invention to compenstate for chromatic aberration caused by prismatic viewers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide uniform altered aspect ratios by present day transmission systems.
It is a further object of this invention to allow for better system physiological and phychological comfort and improved enjoyment in viewing three dimensional images.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide means for the accurate placement on image pairs in relationship to each other when preparing and viewing stereoscopic image pairs.